The Park ‘n’ Ride Transit Terminal in downtown Lethbridge (Lethbridge News Now)

By Justin Goulet

Lethbridge Transit cityLINK network to launch August 25

Jul 14, 2021 | 7:56 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Lethbridge City Council has approved the implementation of the cityLINK transit network.

Councillors voted unanimously at Tuesday’s meeting to direct Lethbridge Transit to enact the network starting August 25, including modifications proposed through the community engagement process.

The cityLINK project represents a complete redesign of the transit system in the city. Following an initial project announcement in May, a series of engagement opportunities were held to gauge the potential impact of the network redesign.

Lethbridge Transit general manager Tim Sanderson said, “after a robust engagement session that received a total of 267 comments, Lethbridge Transit recommended modifications to cityLINK that reflected many of the concerns raised by the public.”

“We will ensure residents have the information and trip planning tools they need to confidently prepare for the new service and adjustments ahead of the August start.”

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The system will offer fixed route service more frequently to areas with “high ridership potential”, while areas with lower potential will be provided demand response service. Residents will be able to get from the University of Lethbridge to the Downtown Lethbridge core faster and enjoy improved access to destinations like the ATB Centre, Chinook Regional Hospital and the Mayor Magrath commercial area.

Based off of community feedback, many adjustments will be made, including:

• Route 50 University will become cityLINK Purple and will provide service along the University of Lethbridge corridor during all Lethbridge Transit operating hours. Corresponding changes will be made to Demand Zone 101 to avoid service area duplication.
• The Route 62 13 St S will operate on an expanded service window and the last bus will leave Lethbridge College at 9:05 p.m. in order to accommodate students attending evening classes. This service will no longer operate when school is not in session.
• In order to facilitate access to demand response services, Transit and 311 will begin offering translation services through MCIS Language Solutions, which offers immediate phone interpretation services for well over 100 languages.
• Fares will be suspended on the Demand Response portions of the service in order to promote usage, increase comfort level and allow infrastructure procurement to allow for fare collection.

Communication of the cityLINK network changes will be delivered through a number of avenues, including:

Advertising at key locations such as the Lethbridge Regional Park ‘n’ Ride Transit Terminal; shelters; buses; Park Place Shopping Centre; libraries; the ENMAX Centre; the YMCA; and post-secondary institutions

• Coordination with post-secondary institutions to inform students
• Outreach to identified stakeholder groups and agencies
• Videos of routes posted online
• Social media marketing
• Lethbridge Regional Park ‘n’ Ride Transit Terminal info/trip planning booth
• On-board announcements

More details on cityLINK are available here.